Worship (Liturgy)

WORSHIP

We are called to worship together with creativity in the presence of the Holy Spirit, and to be renewed and redeem through the Sacraments, the teaching of the apostles, music and prayer.

One thing we did was wonder what it was like for people to visit St. Paul’s. Several people spoke about what they have heard from conversations with visitors at coffee hour. We also shared what it was like for us when we first came to St. Paul’s. It was generally acknowledged that our worship time on Sunday mornings is open, welcoming and comfortable. Many people, who visit us regularly (annually) speak of our worship as being special (like we’re always doing something new), it is like coming home, like a reunion. The worship is also described as exciting.

Generally speaking there is good energy in the worship. We recognized that the building itself is a tremendous asset and we wondered how it might be utilized even more in worship.

Rather than becoming complacent, resting on our laurels, the mood at the potluck was that there is more that we can do to help enhance the experience of visitors and new (to us) people who worship with us. We can help people navigate more easily through the worship and thus feel more a part of what’s happening. Perhaps parishioners could act as guides to new comers.

It was generally agreed that we should keep variety in our worship, in the use of Eucharistic Prayers and in the music. The diversity we enjoy in worship leadership is a good thing that ought to be maintained and enhanced.

There were several suggestions regarding helping visitors have a better experience and ways to improve the worship services for all parishioners. A call or volunteers to form a worship committee was issued and six people raised their hands. A meeting will happen soon and all members of the parish will be welcome to attend. We will review the many suggestions we received.

We will focus on our corporate worship and develop ways to help us in our growth and understanding of the spiritual life and in so doing, result in more fully integrating worship and life.

Since liturgy is the work of the people not just the clergy, we wish to continue to promote lay participation in the worship. We will find ways to help people worship with joy and integrity. We will recruit, train and support our sanctuary guild, Eucharistic ministers, servers, readers, Latinists, choirs, and organists and instrumentalists and explore other opportunities to participate.

We will explore alternate forms of liturgy. We will support our rich tradition and exploration of music and by developing a Music Team. We will consider the use of drama, jazz, youth, the Sunday School, groups of families and outdoor worship. Different ways of doing worship could include different times and weekdays for worship. Exploring our worship could lead to more people seeing worship as a celebration of our life as God’s people. That could help lead us all to a more personal relationship with God and have an opportunity to bring others into relationship with God. It is important to fit into current times without compromising the Gospel.

Assessing these items would provide opportunity to discuss the balance between the traditional and the non-traditional.

The Worship Ministry Team could also be involved with nurturing the spiritual development of people in many ways, such as: a healing ministry, retreats, quiet days, missions, ecumenical outreach, prayer and study groups.

Certain physical changes have been suggested that would have an impact on how we worship and the Team would research, evaluate and possibly recommend to Parish Council their thoughts on everything from installing a loop for hearing aids, to taking out and turning the back pews for social area, to reconstructing the front of the Church – possibly with crescent seating to provide more person to person contact for communion as a people “gathered round the table”.

Every visit to church to worship can be seen as an opportunity to change a life.

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